UFCThe Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a U.S.-based mixed martial arts organization, recognized as the largest MMA promotion in the world. The UFC is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada and is owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC. This promotion is responsible for solidifying the sport's postion in the history-books.
UFC is currently undergoing a remarkable surge in popularity, along with greater mainstream media coverage. UFC programming can now be seen on FOX, FX, and FUEL TV in the United States, as well as in 35 other countries worldwide.

I'm sure this topic has been posted before but after watching a highlight clip of Royce's fights, how would a young Gracie in his prime do in today's UFC? I figure he would be fighting in the WW class and would go up against guys like Matt Hughes (I know Hughes beat him but we are talking a young Gracie) and GSP.

My gut feeling is that he would have difficulty with guys like GSP and their great takedown defense. In his early fights, it really looks like guys aern't properly prepared for the BJJ and cant avoid the takedown. Matt Hughes might have been a different story as his fights usually go to the ground and the BJJ could come into play. As for fighting guys well out of his weight class as they did back in the day, somebody like Liddel with great takedown defense and incredible power would KO him early.

I don;t think Royce would do well in the UFC of today if he fought and trained as he did in the early/mid nineties. I doubt he would do that, most of the new generation of fighters train all sorts of disciplines, working on grappling as well as striking and takedown defense.

I think that if a young Royce fought in the UFC of today he probably would be bringing a different gameplan than he brought ten or fifteen years ago. If he trained more on strinking, while still being mainly a BJJ guy, he would do pretty well.

It's funny though, because he brought the whole BJJ and ground game to the UFC and MMA in general, so without his influences, we may have a totally different sport today.

I agree with you randyspanks tito, he was one dimensional in the 90's although it seems that no one had figured out exactly what to do with that one dimension, thus many of his victories against much larger opponents.

I like the fact that they have moved away from hair pulling and groin shots - it just made the UFC look bad and the fights were often like a bar brawl as opposed to the true sport it is now. Man, those were some tough guys though!

Royce Gracie is a Legend however he will need Standup skills to stand with the likes of the MMA fighters of today, especially those like Hughes, GSP, Penn and so on.
No disrespect intended as i appreciate Gracie as a fan.

I'm sure this topic has been posted before but after watching a highlight clip of Royce's fights, how would a young Gracie in his prime do in today's UFC? I figure he would be fighting in the WW class and would go up against guys like Matt Hughes (I know Hughes beat him but we are talking a young Gracie) and GSP.

My gut feeling is that he would have difficulty with guys like GSP and their great takedown defense. In his early fights, it really looks like guys aern't properly prepared for the BJJ and cant avoid the takedown. Matt Hughes might have been a different story as his fights usually go to the ground and the BJJ could come into play. As for fighting guys well out of his weight class as they did back in the day, somebody like Liddel with great takedown defense and incredible power would KO him early.

Thoughts?

Well take into consideration he was trained to fight with his Gi on, then take into consideration he was never used to time limits. Then also that he was never trained (other than his later fights) to deal with the defending rule.
He is just a fighter from another time, where you could be getting your ass kicked for 15 minutes until the giant hitting you got tired and makde a mistake.
I think the rules are more against Royce than his skills are.

Well take into consideration he was trained to fight with his Gi on, then take into consideration he was never used to time limits. Then also that he was never trained (other than his later fights) to deal with the defending rule.
He is just a fighter from another time, where you could be getting your ass kicked for 15 minutes until the giant hitting you got tired and makde a mistake.
I think the rules are more against Royce than his skills are.

I watched a rerun of the UFC Unleashed episode which focused on Royce, and one thing I noticed was most of the fighters he faced failed to do some very rudimentary things to counter his submissions. Things which a fighter today with any round game at all would be trained to do.
Keith Hackney was outmuscling him and for a while showed what today would be called takedown defence, but got too frustrated trying to get punches through and got caught. Jason Delucia could easily have rolled out of that armbar before Royce cinched it in if he had any idea what he was doing.
It was the first time I watched the Kimo fight, and I found myself practically yelling at my TV, because there were times where the bigger strnger Kimo could have slapped a submission on Gracie himself. He also could have thrown him or gone for a choke when he had his back standing up, but hesitated too long and Royce dropped down and went into guard.
I think part of it was by that time guys like Kimo knew what Royce was about, but hadn't figured out how to counter him. Instead of taking the fight to him, they panicked and focused on not going to the ground. What you had was a stalemate which finally ended when Royce fond an opening.
I'm not trying to take anything away from what Royce accomplished in those fights. He was way ahead of his time as far as MMA was concerned. But if he was entering the game today, he'd have to train for today's game. A Royce Gracie trained in staright 1993 BJJ wouldn't do nearly as well.

Yeah, if UFC 60 was any indication, it showed that Royce's style wouldn't suit MMA today even in Royce's prime. Though if he had trained like the fighters today train, he would definately own everyone.